Jar of Wishes
by BittersweetSonata
Summary: She's magic, and he's a prince. They're really gonna go places. Like on an adventure to save the kingdom, and maybe they'll fall in love along the way too.
1. Seventeen

**This is more of an intro than anything. **

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Fairy Tail.**

**This story was inspired by a picture I saw of a little Juvia in a glass jar with a teru teru bozu doll.**

**Fixed because of misplaced linebreaks. **

Chapter One

Seventeen

* * *

_{They say that the world was built for two} _

* * *

Our story starts with a princess who doesn't yet know that she is a princess. She's small and fragile at the moment, on the verge of breaking, like glass right before it is dropped.

She stands beside a man who towers over her – her father – and she listens to the priest's words. They're all empty promises and his words hold no meaning to her, because they can't bring back what she's lost.

It's raining, and a maid holds a black umbrella over her while a butler holds one over her father.

The sky is gray, and pouring out all its sorrows onto the earth and its inhabitants below.

She wishes she could do that.

Maybe just a little.

The priest closes his book, and everyone bows their heads.

Someone drops the glass.

Then, after he is finished with his prayer – what good does it do to pray for someone who is gone, she wonders to herself – people start to disperse. Maybe they were invited, maybe they were family of the bereft, or they might have just been a curious passerby stopping to watch but walking in on a tragedy.

The two gravediggers lower the black casket into a deep hole in the ground – the eternal resting place of the box.

And she shatters.

Just like the glass.

* * *

There's a sad little girl gazing out the window. Rain is pelting the glass panes and it just _doesn't stop. _

It's never ending. Day after day after day it rains, coming down in torrents.

Everybody blames her.

She doesn't know why.

She clutches the small white doll to her chest, as her hollow azure eyes follow the trail of water running down the opaque panes. It's a never ending race, just like the rain.

* * *

She sighs softly and picks up the book from the puddle of mud it'd been tossed into. She does her best to ignore the taunts and teases of the other children as she uses her dress sleeve to try and clean off some of the muck.

The book is just going to be stolen from her and tossed into the mud again later, as it had been many times before, but she still continues to attempt to remove the grime.

She's smaller than everyone else – a surefire target for their taunts and a being to direct their meanness onto – and this happens all the time.

She does her best to ignore it, but it's not enough sometimes.

* * *

Scarlet hair flutters in the wind, followed by pained cries and sobbing. There's a girl at the canal's edge, crying her heart out, but no one stops to listen to what she has to say.

They're all too busy for the street girl who isn't really a street girl at all. But that doesn't matter to them because she _looks _like one, so they pass her by, uncaring.

Blissfully unaware.

* * *

There's a tiny girl – a baby – sleeping peacefully. And next to her is a smiling boy with their smiling parents. She is the tiny princess of the kingdom and he is the prince. Their parents are the beloved king and queen, and they're all happy.

* * *

There's a boy – another prince – pulling at his collar uncomfortably. Beside him is his slightly older brother, and their more-than-slightly-older sister.

None of them like being dressed up and put on display.

Not even their mother, the queen, who greets guests with a tight smile on her face.

* * *

He groans and shifts uncomfortably alongside his father. He's a prince and his cousin's parents – the king and queen – have just had a baby, so of course he and his father must attend the ceremony.

His father is a lot more ecstatic than he is, though.

He's not much of a social person, like his cousin.

* * *

It is dark and dreary, and he doesn't really like it. He likes sunsets but not what comes after them. Maybe sunrise was better.

But he drags himself along, the chains attached to his food-deprived frame holding him back and slowing him down.

He's tired, and has nothing to fight for.

And the guards poke and prod him, taunting and laughing, unaware that he dreams of freedom and putting an end to their torture.

* * *

It was a gift.

She knew that.

Mavis was only trying to be helpful, and she appreciates that.

But it's turned into a curse with no cure.

And she was already cursed, and there is no cure for that either.

Lucy plays with the white lace on her exquisite gown, and thinks.

There is _one _thing, and _one _thing only that can break her curse, but she scoffs at it because there is no such thing. She's contradictory, she knows. She believes in it when she reads romance novels and when the hero saves the tragic damsel in distress. She believes in it other times too. But not for herself.

She's not a damsel in distress. She pretends she isn't locked away in a tower far from any form of civilization other than a family of squirrels in a tree a few hundred feet away from her prison.

She pretends she isn't cursed and that her father didn't have her locked away because she reminds him too much of his late wife.

But she is cursed, and she is locked away with no way out.

There's an aching deep down in her soul, yearning for adventure, for something different.

She's not fond of fancy dresses and dozens of petticoats and frills. She's always been more of a simple girl, but being born into a noble family where your father is the head of one of the largest companies in the kingdom doesn't allow one to do as you wish.

Lucy has one little problem – besides having a father who seemingly didn't care about her any longer and locked her away in a tower, which is another thing entirely.

She's magic.

Mavis Vermillion had given her this special gift when she was just a baby. She was blessed, her beloved mother had always reminded her. And the blonde thought it was great for a while, but then things started to happen. Bad things.

Her mother became sick. Her father started to get angry.

She didn't understand what was happening.

Her mother became worse. Her father got angrier.

It was like cause and effect, she realized now.

Porlyusica was called, and she made a special mix of everything that looked awful and was probably lethal otherwise. Layla Heartfilia drank it, and she started to get better. The little girl's father started to regain some of his composure. Everything was slowly returning to the way it used to be.

And then Layla died suddenly.

Although it wasn't actually suddenly, and Lucy knew that.

Layla Heartfilia had _not _taken the whole bowl of peculiar-looking soup that Porlyusica had mixed up for her. Lucy hadn't blamed her mother at first, because newt's eyes and fairy's tears hadn't sounded especially appetizing. But Porlyusica had instructed the sick woman drink _everything. _

Lucy wanted to tell, but Layla had just smiled tiredly and put a finger to her lips. So she didn't say anything, not a word, and her mother died a few days later.

And ever since then, her father had neglected her.

Yes, Lucy was magic. Very literally, in fact. Her blood was infused with it, and it flowed through her veins. Of course, Fiore was a magical country anyway – what with peculiar mushrooms and dragons and all a matter of unnatural things – but Lucy was special.

"I just want to be free." she whispers, staring out the window that is, ironically, her only view of the outside world. "It's all so _close_, but it's just out of reach."

The blonde extends her hand and stretches it as far as she possibly can. "I want to see the world. I want to feel the grass beneath my feet again. To run without any walls blocking me."

She sighs and retracts her hand, using it to twist her long skirts instead.

Because she is stuck here, with no way out – well, one.

And if there is a lock, there must also be a key.

The only problem was that she doesn't know _where _that key is.

Or that, incidentally, it's headed her way at a breakneck pace.

* * *

**Notes: Yeah, this was supposed to be different. That obviously didn't happen. ****So Lucy ended up as a Rapunzel cliche, and while she was always my favorite princess, I wasn't really planning on that. ****All the linebreaks are because it's a view into the lives of the main characters in this au. First Lucy, then Juvia, then Levy, then Erza, Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and finally Jellal. All the couples, in other words. Plus Wendy. **

**And since Lucy ended up in a tower, a few more chapters have been added to this so that it will make sense in the future. Those chapters are also located somewhere in the future. **

**Dumb title is most likely dumb. **

**Reviews make the world go 'round. **

**Ja ne. **

**- Sonata **


	2. Destiny

II.

Destiny

* * *

_{A star fell from your heart and landed right in my eyes}_

* * *

Natsu Dragneel is holding on for dear life and trying to not lose the rest of his lunch as his horse races through the never ending lines of trees. Well, it isn't really _his _horse. More like, his father's stable's horse that the idiot prince he calls a friend had tricked him into riding.

He quickly brings a hand up to his mouth, trying not to hurl, but decides _that's _a bad idea when he almost slips off the beast underneath him. Even though he isn't really a fan of _any _sort of transportation other than walking, he doesn't really prefer falling off and onto his ass either.

He has one problem, one _major_ problem.

He has a _serious _case of motion sickness, and can't bear hitching a ride on _anything. _No carriages, no boats, no horses, no people (we're talking about being carried, here), no cows (not that he'd ever needed to ride a cow, or that he desired to, because he certainly didn't), and especially no _trains. _

As the prince of Fiore and next appointed ruler, you can see how this can cause some problems.

Lots of problems.

_Infinite _problems.

Like the situation he was in right now.

Damn Gray Fullbuster. Damn him to hell because, quite frankly, he was an ass.

And _how dare he _trick him into getting on this_ thing_?

"Uuugh." Natsu groans, and wearily opens his eyes, only the blurring skyline and surrounding forest make him feel worse.

But he catches a small flash of blue.

"NATSUUUU!" a high-pitched voice screeches out. "I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU!"

The pink-haired prince watches as his furry blue companion – a talking and _flying _cat named Happy he'd found when he was a boy, and raised himself – catches up to him and the horse he's on that's tearing through the dense forest.

"I finally caught up to you!" Happy declares, shooting him a wide smile. "Don't worry, I'll get you off that horse in no ti-,"

Natsu watches as the blue cat collides with a tree, and grimaces. Happy observes little fish swimming around the air above his head before he falls unconscious. "Happy!" the concerned prince calls out to his friend as he's carried deeper into the woods.

In his state of motion sickness induced nausea, Natsu tries to recall just how exactly he ended up on a runaway horse – a type of _transportation, _mind you – that he had no control over whatsoever, out in the middle of what was believed to be an enchanted forest, hanging on for his life and the last shreds of his dignity.

He decides to back up a little bit, to that morning.

* * *

Gray Fullbuster crosses his arms and scowls at the unruly pink-headed lazy-ass he calls his friend. Natsu Dragneel, the prince of Fiore and the son of King Igneel and Queen Grandine Dragneel, is laying face-down on his bed.

(By the way, Gray really had no grounds to criticize Natsu's hairstyle because, quite frankly, his hair may have been a normal color, but it looked like he had just gotten out of bed. _All the time._)

The grandfather clock strikes twelve and Gray sighs irritably, shaking his head. "Get _up._" he commands, poking and prodding Natsu with his boot-clad foot. It may have been improper for the heir of the North Kingdom – a very cold and icy but beautiful place nonetheless – to be standing on several of the kingdom's finest silk bedding, practically kicking the prince – and heir – to the kingdom of Fiore with his foot, but Gray Fullbuster would not be deterred.

To his credit, he started out by just barely touching him with the toe of his boot.

And long, long before that – he's talking about around a time period about forty-five minutes here – he'd even asked civilly.

But _no. _

This idiot just simply _refused _to get out of his damn bed.

Gray Fullbuster is having _none_ of Natsu Dragneel's shit today.

The dark-headed teen's scowl deepens, and leans down. He smirks evilly to himself before ripping off the layers of soft comforters and silk sheets. Then, he hits his open palm with a closed fist, and turns his lazy friend into a human Popsicle.

Natsu's eyes shoot open and he lets out a yell of surprise before falling off the bed in a tangled mess of sheets and blankets.

The heir to the North Kingdom instantly feels self-satisfaction and he starts to laugh.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" he chortles, clutching his bare stomach – somehow he's managed to lose his shirt and the coat he'd walked in wearing earlier – and rolling around on the bed. Or what was left of it. "It was friggin' _hilarious_!"

He is met with a fist to the face, abruptly putting a stop to his laughter and causing him to grunt and fall off the other side of the king-sized bed because of the sheer _force _behind the blow.

A shirtless Natsu crosses his arms over his well-toned chest and scowls. "That's what you get, stripper."

The only response he receives is a groan before Gray's head peers over the side of the bed, dark hair even messier than before. "I've been tryin' to get you out of bed for almost an _hour, _you lazy-ass dragon."

"I was sleeping." Natsu deadpans.

The reply he gets is a smoldering glare. "I could see that, you moron."

"Why are you here?" the prince of Fiore questions, tapping his foot in impatience.

Gray looks a little lost for a moment. "I've been here for three days."

"….so you have."

The prince of the Northern Kingdom seems to regain his spirit, and he stands, smirking at his friend across the room. "We're going riding."

(Okay, so maybe he hadn't really been tricked into going riding.)

"No."

Gray frowns. "Why not, stupid?"

"I don't ride." Natsu answers simply, and his friend begins to feel a headache coming on.

"I know that."

The pink-haired teen raises a brow quizzically. "Then why would you even bother asking."

"I wasn't asking. We're _going riding_." Gray informs him. "I was simply telling you, and you're going. That is that."

Natsu laughs at him.

But later he finds himself with a newly acquired bruise on his head, and that he is riding along behind the prince of the Northern Kingdom. Although, he isn't so much as riding as he is limply leaning over the horse looking sheet-white compared to his usual tan complexion and trying to keep the bile in his throat down.

"I'm leaving tomorrow and I wanted to see this so-called 'enchanted forest' that you guys have here in Magnolia." Gray explains as they trot along at a decent pace.

"Bullshit." Natsu manages to say. "You've been here before lots of times."

"Aye." the pinkette's cat, Happy, spoke for the first time. It was weird that he hadn't hardly made a sound since they left.

He receives a deadpan look. "Twice. I've been here twice." he turns back to the path – it's gracious calling it that, even – and sighs. "Truth is, I was hoping we'd get lost out here. I'm not ready to go back home."

"I…thought you…liked," Natsu was going to attempt to say 'the Northern Kingdom' but he didn't think he'd be able to do it, "…home."

It would do.

"Yeah, that's not it." Gray sighs again.

Natsu knows what it is.

Gray Fullbuster had been coerced into an arranged marriage that he wanted absolutely no part in whatsoever. Apparently it was some sort of arrangement between his mother – Ur, the queen of the Northern Kingdom, respectively – and this king from a neighboring kingdom. Ur Milkovich Fullbuster did not want to agree to it, but since her husband had died years ago, other countries seemed to think she was weak and tried to take advantage of her.

In hindsight, none of those attempts turned out very well, because Ur proved to be a very capable queen – a better ruler than her husband, some said – and she could handle things much better than those other rulers had imagined.

Igneel Dragneel had not underestimated the woman – as they'd been friends since childhood – and he was probably one of the only kings who hadn't.

Ur Milkovich Fullbuster was not a woman to mess with, and now that that fact had been thoroughly established, she thought people would leave her alone.

But no. One persistent bastard apparently still maintained a grudge against her because she was a woman ruling a kingdom alone.

And so he made a threat.

He would invade her kingdom and take it over if she did not relinquish power to either one of her sons, or one of the other men suitable for the position.

Ur Milkovich Fullbuster's response was basically as follows:

'Bite me. You just go ahead and _try _to invade my kingdom you sexist asshole, and my troops will freeze you over and turn you into ice cubes.'

Igneel Dragneel approved this message. And still does, by the way.

However, it had not gone over so well with the receiver of the message and he'd promptly sent most of his army across the sea to the Northern Kingdom on threat of invasion.

This man was serious.

But Ur Milkovich Fullbuster was serious too, and Igneel Dragneel backed her up. With their forces combined – as they were two of the strongest and toughest kingdoms in Earthland – they could easily outmatch and outfight the threat.

And then that bastard's threat and move to invade her country rekindled the fire inside all of her other enemies who of course, sent their troops to back him.

It was turning into a world catastrophe, and so, as much as she hated to do it, Ur Milkovich Fullbuster, Queen of the Northern Kingdom, had to make a decision.

Thus her youngest was chosen to replace her on the throne. Normally, the oldest would be chosen for the place of ruler, as it was only natural. But Ur's oldest was her daughter Ultear and that wouldn't solve any of their problems because she too, was a female. Next came Lyon. Lyon was kind of an ass due to him being mad at their mother because of this demon called Deliora and how she almost got herself killed fighting it, not to mention he was pretty power-hungry and there was no telling what his rule would do to the kingdom. So Lyon was out of the picture as well.

That left Ur's last child, who had to marry quickly so he could officially be crowned king of the Northern Kingdom.

And so was Gray Fullbuster's plight.

Natsu is just about to try and civilly tell Gray how he could relate, when something spooks his horse.

They couldn't see what it was.

At least, not at _first_.

"Bandits." Gray mutters to himself, trying to keep his horse under control as they're suddenly surrounded.

"Well, well, well." one of them tsks, stepping out from among the group. "Look what we have here. The prince and soon-to-be king of the Northern Kingdom and…," he blinks a few times before his brows furrow. "…who the hell is this?" he waves his hand over at the sick, pink-haired, young man slumped over on his horse.

Due to the aforementioned case of nasty motion sickness, Natsu didn't get out in public much. At least, not with his family. The result?

Nobody had any idea who the hell he was.

Of course, this didn't bother Natsu at all because he could go out and explore the kingdom without hardly ever being recognized. It was easier that way, and he liked it. No one referred to him as 'Master' or 'Prince' or 'Your Highness' or any of those other formal titles that he'd never gotten used to. They knew him as simply 'Natsu', and really, that was all that mattered.

And Gray is going to use this to his advantage. If they didn't know who Natsu was, then they also didn't know what he was capable of. He surveys the group of bandits surrounding them, and mentally does the math.

The two of them wouldn't have any problem disarming all of them.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" another man questions, poking Natsu's unmoving body with a stick.

"Is he dead?" someone asks.

"Did Prince Gray kill him?"

"Maybe he's taking a shortcut through here so no one sees the body!"

"_Do you mean to tell me we're trying to take a murderer hostage and hold him for ransom_?!" yet another shrieks, absolutely horrified.

Gray has no idea where they're coming up with all their conclusions, but he has to admit that they are kind of amusing.

"Wait, wait!" the man with the stick yells, poking Natsu again and getting a small groan in response. "He's not dead! _Yet_…," he mumbles the last part.

"Psst. Gray." said teen looks down to see Happy peeking at him through the slit in his pack that was thrown over the back of his horse. "We've gotta get out of here."

He narrows his eyes. "Don't you think I _know _that?" he whispers back a bit harshly.

And then the unexpected happens.

The man attempts to poke Natsu with his stick again – Gray isn't sure _why, _he knows that the teen is alive now, so maybe it's just some form of enjoyment – and misses.

It pokes the horse.

Quite hard this time.

Natsu's horse bolts off ahead, and suddenly he is almost wide awake and blanching again. He can hear Gray's shouts and the sounds of a battle behind him, but he's not stopping to go back and help out. He _can't _stop.

* * *

Natsu blinks wearily and clears his thoughts as he realizes that all movement has stopped. He's still holding on, just barely, but the horse is calm and still.

_Finally. _

He somehow manages to pry his fingers off the reins, and he falls off the rest of the way, landing on the ground below with a muffled grunt. He stays like that for a while, just lying there, before he finally lifts himself up and takes in his surroundings.

And he is amazed at what he sees. For there, about three hundred feet in front of him, is an old tower.

It's tall of course, made of stones and covered in ivy and vines. It doesn't look as if it's been used for years, and yet, something draws him toward it.

He spares a quick glance over his shoulder and shrugs. He doesn't know where he is anyway, so why not climb the tower and see what was inside?

Natsu grins as he reaches out and grabs one of the rocks, hoisting himself up. Unaware that inside, a girl with closed eyes is wishing on a jar of stars.

* * *

**Notes: I wasn't going to update this today, but I had it typed up, so I was like, "Why not?" ****And so here it is.**

**As much as I hate sexists, and I love gender equality, it was necessary for me to add one into the plot. You actually won't see him until _way_, _way _into this story, but he is mentioned here. **

**Same goes for hardly anybody knowing who Natsu is. It is also necessary to the plot, and is also there for comic relief. **

**Yes, this is eventual NaLu and Gruvia, as well as Jerza and GaLe. **

**Here's a kicker: Juvia is _not _the girl Gray's been forced into an engagement with. **

**Please be kind and don't forget to review. **

**Ja ne. **

**- Sonata**


End file.
